China’s foreign minister on Sunday welcomed the deal between the United States and Russia to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons, which headed off the prospect of US strikes against the Syrian Arab Republic.

China's foreign minister on Sunday welcomed the deal between the United States and Russia to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons, which headed off the prospect of US strikes against the Syrian Arab Republic.

"The Chinese side welcomes the general agreement between the US and Russia. This agreement will enable tensions in Syria to be eased," Wang Yi said at a meeting with his visiting French counterpart Laurent Fabius.

Fabius, who arrived in Beijing Sunday morning and was due to head back to Paris later, called the pact "a significant step forward" and said "important decisions need to be taken on Syria".

"We must move forward on the basis of this general agreement," he said.

The US-Russian agreement was reached in Geneva on Saturday after three days of talks between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia's Sergei Lavrov.